ninth edition

STEPHEN P. ROBBINS MARY COULTER

Human Resource
Management

PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook

The University of West Alabama
The Importance of Human Resource
Management (HRM)
• As a necessary part of the organizing function of
management
 Selecting, training, and evaluating the work force
• As an important strategic tool
 HRM helps establish an organization’s sustainable
competitive advantage.
• Adds value to the firm
 High performance work practices lead to both high
individual and high organizational performance.
Exhibit 12–1 Examples of High-Performance Work Practices

• Self-managed teams
• Decentralized decision making
• Training programs to develop knowledge, skills,
and abilities
• Flexible job assignments
• Open communication
• Performance-based compensation
• Staffing based on person–job and person–
organization fit
The HRM Process
• Functions of the HRM Process
 Ensuring that competent employees are identified and
selected.
 Providing employees with up-to-date knowledge and
skills to do their jobs.
 Ensuring that the organization retains competent and
high-performing employees who are capable of high
performance.
Exhibit 12–2 Human Resource Management Process
Environmental Factors Affecting HRM
• Employee Labor Unions
 Organizations that represent workers and seek to
protect their interests through collective bargaining.
 Collective bargaining agreement
– A contractual agreement between a firm and a union
elected to represent a bargaining unit of employees of the
firm in bargaining for wage, hours, and working conditions.
• Governmental Laws and Regulations
 Limit managerial discretion in hiring, promoting, and
discharging employees.
 Affirmative Action: the requirement that organizations take
proactive steps to ensure the full participation of protected
groups in its workforce.
Managing Human Resources
• Human Resource (HR) Planning
 The process by which managers ensure that they
have the right number and kinds of people in the right
places, and at the right times, who are capable of
effectively and efficiently performing their tasks.
 Helps avoid sudden talent shortages and surpluses.
 Steps in HR planning:
 Assessing current human resources
 Assessing future needs for human resources
 Developing a program to meet those future needs
Current Assessment
• Human Resource Inventory
 A review of the current make-up of the organization’s
current resource status
 Job Analysis
 An assessment that defines a job and the behaviors
necessary to perform the job
– Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)
 Requires conducting interviews, engaging in direct
observation, and collecting the self-reports of employees and
their managers.
Current Assessment (cont’d)
• Job Description
 A written statement of what the job holder does, how
it is done, and why it is done.
• Job Specification
 A written statement of the minimum qualifications that
a person must possess to perform a given job
successfully.
Meeting Future Human Resource Needs

Supply of Employees Demand for Employees

Factors Affecting Staffing

Strategic Goals
Forecast demand for products and services
Availability of knowledge, skills, and abilities
Recruitment and Decruitment
• Recruitment
 The process of locating, identifying, and attracting
capable applicants to an organization
• Decruitment
 The process of reducing a surplus of employees in
the workforce of an organization
• E-recruiting
 Recruitment of employees through the Internet
 Organizational web sites
 Online recruiters
Selection
• Selection Process
 The process of screening job applicants to ensure
that the most appropriate candidates are hired.
• What is Selection?
 An exercise in predicting which applicants, if hired,
will be (or will not be) successful in performing well on
the criteria the organization uses to evaluate
performance.
 Selection errors:
 Reject errors for potentially successful applicants
 Accept errors for ultimately poor performers
Validity and Reliability
• Validity (of Prediction)
 A proven relationship between the selection device
used and some relevant criterion for successful
performance in an organization.
 High tests scores equate to high job performance; low scores
to poor performance.
• Reliability (of Prediction)
 The degree of consistency with which a selection
device measures the same thing.
 Individual test scores obtained with a selection device are
consistent over multiple testing instances.
Exhibit 12–7 Selection Devices

• Application Forms
• Written Tests
• Performance Simulations
• Interviews
• Background Investigations
• Physical examinations
Written Tests
• Types of Tests
 Intelligence: how smart are you?
 Aptitude: can you learn to do it?
 Attitude: how do you feel about it?
 Ability: can you do it now?
 Interest: do you want to do it?
Performance Simulation Tests
• Testing an applicant’s ability to perform actual
job behaviors, use required skills, and
demonstrate specific knowledge of the job.
 Work sampling
 Requiring applicants to actually perform a task or set of tasks
that are central to successful job performance.
 Assessment centers
 Dedicated facilities in which job candidates undergo a series
of performance simulation tests to evaluate their managerial
potential.
Other Selection Approaches
• Interviews
 Although used almost universally, managers need to
approach interviews carefully.
• Background Investigations
 Verification of application data
 Reference checks:
 Lack validity because self-selection of references ensures
only positive outcomes.
• Physical Examinations
 Useful for physical requirements and for insurance
purposes related to pre-existing conditions.
Exhibit 12–9 Examples of “Can’t Ask and Can Ask” Interview Questions
for Managers*

Can’t Ask Can Ask

• What’s your birth date? • Are you over 18?
or How old are you?
• Would you relocate?
• What’s your marital
• Are you authorized to
status? or Do you plan to
work in the United
have a family?
States?
• What’s your native
• Have you ever been
language?
convicted of [fill in the
• Have you ever been blank]?—The crime must
arrested? be reasonably related to
the performance of the
job.
Orientation
• Transitioning a new employee into the
organization.
 Work-unit orientation
 Familiarizes new employee with work-unit goals
 Clarifies how his or her job contributes to unit goals
 Introduces he or she to his or her coworkers
 Organization orientation
 Informs new employee about the organization’s objectives,
history, philosophy, procedures, and rules.
 Includes a tour of the entire facility
Exhibit 12–11 Types of Training

Type Includes
General Communication skills, computer systems application
and programming, customer service, executive
development, management skills and development,
personal growth, sales, supervisory skills, and
technological skills and knowledge
Specific Basic life/work skills, creativity, customer education,
diversity/cultural awareness, remedial writing, managing
change, leadership, product knowledge, public
speaking/presentation skills, safety, ethics, sexual
harassment, team building, wellness, and others
Exhibit 12–12 Employee Training Methods

• Traditional • Technology-Based
Training Methods Training Methods
 On-the-job  CD-ROM/DVD/videotapes/
audiotapes
 Job rotation
 Videoconferencing/
 Mentoring and coaching teleconferencing/
 Experiential exercises satellite TV

 Workbooks/manuals  E-learning

 Classroom lectures
Employee Performance Management
• Performance Management System
 A process of establishing performance standards and
appraising employee performance in order to arrive at
objective HR decisions and to provide documentation
in support of those decisions.
Compensation and Benefits
• Benefits of a Fair, Effective, and Appropriate
Compensation System
 Helps attract and retain high-performance employees
 Impacts on the strategic performance of the firm
• Types of Compensation
 Base wage or salary
 Wage and salary add-ons
 Incentive payments
 Skill-based pay
 Variable pay
Career Development
• Career Defined
 The sequence of positions held by a person during
his or her lifetime.
 The Way It Was
 Career Development
– Provided for information, assessment, and training
– Helped attract and retain highly talented people
 Now

– Individuals—not the organization—are responsible for

designing, guiding, and developing their own careers.
Current Issues in HRM
• Managing Downsizing
 The planned elimination of jobs in an organization
 Provide open and honest communication.
 Provide assistance to employees being downsized.
 Reassure and counseling to surviving employees.

• Managing Work Force Diversity

 Widen the recruitment net for diversity
 Ensure selection without discrimination
 Provide orientation and training that is effective
Current Issues in HRM (cont’d)
• Work-Life Balance
 Employees have personal lives that they don’t leave
behind when they come to work.
 Organizations have become more attuned to their
employees by offering family-friendly benefits:
 On-site child care
 Summer day camps
 Flextime
 Job sharing
 Leave for personal matters
 Flexible job hours
Current Issues in HRM (cont’d)
• Controlling HR Costs
 Employee health-care
 Encouraging healthy lifestyles
– Financial incentives
– Wellness programs
– Charging employees with poor health habits more for
benefits
 Employee pension plans
 Reducing pension benefits
 No longer providing pension plans